, 1887-07-01
THE INDIAN MEDICINE MAN.
Wonderful Feats OF JuGgiery-wrestiine
with the Demons OF Disease.

I H' JONfllui IllAllCliSo VI AhS 1T
which actuate his subjects as well as him
self. The following declaration is Ger
tainly remarkable:
Il have known ~neuralgias, rheuIna-
tisms, fevers, dysenteries, diarrhueas,
aGucs, Paralyses, cystitis, etc, to be per-
manently relieved or benefited; tumors to
disappear; commissions controlled or pro-
duced; persons to become instantaneously
stricken with blindness or palsy; rendered
oblivious to pain and torture; deprived Of
muscular power and made as rigid as
marble; to drop as If dead and pulseless;
rise and walk when an instant before in
capable of the slightest ~exertion-all by
the COMPUTATIONS and incantations of med
ic.ne men. Also, l am personally con-
vcrsant with the prediction Of events in
the far future exactly as they subse-
quently occurred, and with scrupulous
fidelity TO details; the movements of per-
sons and individuals to be described in
minutip who had never been seen, much
less heard of, and who were hundreds of
miles away Mt the time. Moreover, l
have witnessed feats of legerdemain, jug
glery and necromancy, exhibited in broad
daylight, under the full glare of the sun,
rs well rs at night, without p%arapherna-
liza or mystic aids, that would puzzle the
most a5tute professor of civilized magic;
some, to be sure, susceptible of explana-
ton under physical and p%sychical laws,
and others not SO readily disposed of. save
as optical and aural delusions and tricks
of the imagination"
Noise and odor are the means by which
the medicine man operates upon the
demons which afIlict the sick man. The
patient is shut up in q close and sitting
atmosphere and submitted to combina-
tons of sounds and smells calculated to
drive the mos obstreperous of foul devils
to the remote confines of space-odors so
very Internal and nauseous that even dogs
are made i'll thereby"
When the medicine man is called, he
proceeds to business at once. The dag
nosis does not bother him, for all diseases
have a similar origin, and, by means of
the amulets in his medicine bag, he n
Immediately find out which is the special
foul fiend he has to deal with, as well
as discern the proper treatment. Only
one opinion is possible; the number and
malignancy of the demons at work in a
given case is the only thing to bo de-
termined.
If possible, the incarnation is put off
until night, because the spirits are more
easily brought under discipline in dark
ness. The proceedings usually begin
with a monotonous chant that rises and
falls with abrupt infections. In this
the demons are alternately coaxed, hui
morcd or threatened, and in every way
abjured to leave their present habitation
and resume their proper forms. In the
meantime the assistants keep up n run
ming accompaniment with drums and rat
ties made from gourds and parchment.
Gradually the songs become louder and
more violent, the drums and rattles in
crease their din, higher and higher,
s~llriller and still more shrill becomes the
voice of the conjurer, until it becomes a
frantic, piercing shrek, and the din is a
pandcmonium. altogether iiendish, Graz
ing and excruciating beyond comprehen-
sion. Finally, utterly exhausted, the
chief performer, black in the face and
streaming perspiration from every pore,
pauses and-eats. All present fall to and
fill themselves to repletion. This per-
Torrance is repeated again and again,
while the smoke and fumes of burning
gunpowder, fish entrails, bears hair,
parchment, fur and other odorous sub
stances too disgusting to mention fill the
lodge to ]sufTocaton with smells that can
fairly be felt. During the interval the
patient is blown upon with the breath, the
painful parts sucked with the mouth, OF
gashcd with knives or fints, E that IN
imitation Of wet Cupping can be practiced
by means of q bison horn from which the
air has been exhausted by sdction. To
complete the expulsion of the demon, and
to keep him away, the incarnation ends
with n discharge of firearms through the
lodges and all around, and this is some
times kept up for hours after the medi-
cine mar has taken his departure.
Sometimes the demon shows but little
strength and is driven away quite easily,
but a strong and malignant individual
may require q grand council of practi-
TONERS and several weeks of efforts like
those just described before the patient
gets well or dies-in other words, before
the demons prove amenable to discipline
or show themselves too strong. Unfor-
tunately, in spite of all precautions, the
demon frequently returns; there is q re-
lapse; or, as the unbeliever might say,
1.-The nervous excitement and impression
upon the imagination wear of, and the
same old conditions are found to be pres
ent as before. This, of course, requires
more lamentations, until at last nature
comes to the sick mans aid or death
closes the scene. In the latter event the
practitioner is not blamed. 1t is to be
expected that a demon of any power or
reputation would endeavor to outwit the
medicine men and come back with every
opportunity, and the more powerful its
manifestations when it does come back
the greater the evidence of ability on the
part of the practitioner. Besides, the
n first i'll possession may have called in
others to help him defy the medicine
men, or the supreme spirit himself may
have taken matters into his own hands
and interfered with all efforts to save the
patient because the latter has broken
some VOW made years before, perhaps.
At all events, the result was inevitable,
for the savage is firm believer in fate
Globe-Democrat.
Interesting Signaling Apparatus.